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Mar 4, 2010

They are allowed to sing, but tweeting and Facebooking are off-limits for this season's Idols.

American Idol producers abruptly canceled season nine's grand social-networking experiment and consolidated the contestants' individual Twitter and Facebook accounts into a pair of official, show-related pages.

Generic messages were sent out from each contestants' account advising fans of the change. The tweet read "all my updates from now on will be on our Official 'American Idol' 9 Contestant Page... @AI9Contestants."

The Facebook message contained a similar message. "Thanks so much for joining my fan page! All my updates from now on will be on our Official American Idol 9 Contestant Page, please become a fan there to read all my updates throughout the season."

FOX did not give a reason for this change, although blogs are assuming the move is a way of leveling the playing field.

The demise of the individualized social media pages will result in a lack of communication between contestants and their audience. Social networks provide us regular folk with an opportunity to connect with the stars, or Idols in this case. These pages would have given the contestants a competitive edge, as social media does effect relationships and voting.

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